Mourinho Blames Referee For United’s Super Cup Defeat, Shades Ronaldo

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has had a dig at Cristiano Ronaldo and blamed referee Gianluca Rocchi for allowing one of Real Madrid’s goals stand in the UEFA Super Cup final played in Macedonia on Tuesday night.

Real Madrid won the encounter 2-1 with goals from in each half from Carlos Casemiro and Isco Alarcon ensuring that Romelu Lukaku’s second half strike counted for nothing.

Mourinho, who has lost four of his last five games against Real Madrid and three European Super Cup matches as a manager following defeats in 2013 with Chelsea and in 2003 with FC Porto, is also confident of his ahead of Sunday’s English Premier League opener against West Ham at Old Trafford.

“I think we did well, I think we lost to one goal which shows the result was really short and one of their goals was an offside. With a good VAR system it would be 1-1 and extra-time,” Mourinho told BT Sport after the game, referring to Casemiro’s opening goal where the midfielder appeared to be marginally offside.

“They could have scored more goals than they did, we could have scored more goals than we did. They had a period of dominance in the middle of the first half and we had a period of dominance at middle of the second half.

“We were playing a team full of fantastic players, we discussed the result until almost the end.

“I say almost the end because with Cristiano Ronaldo coming on, because every time Ronaldo wanted a free-kick the game was stopped. We gave them a fight but have reasons to leave optimistic and proud. Let’s go for Sunday.”